There's going to be a new Star Wars film every year - forever

Can you have too much of a good thing? Well, when it comes to bacon... no. But we're about to find out with Star Wars.

We already knew that there was going to be a film every year until 2019, but now a new report suggests that there will be a new Star Wars film every year 'for the foreseeable future'.

Unless you've been busy dwelling under a particularly large rock, you'll know about this year's Episode VII: The Force Awakens, but after that comes 2016's Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, which is the first of the spin-off films, which Disney is calling the "Anthology Series". 2017 will see Episode VIII arrive, 2018 the Han Solo spin-off Anthology movie, and then 2019 Episode IX.

But if you thought they were going to pause for breath after that, then think on.

Wired magazine reports that Disney is planning to turn Star Wars into a "forever franchise" - basically, pumping out the films for as long as they remain profitable.

Wired's Adam Rogers explains in the feature that, "They are making more. A lot more. The company intends to put out a new Star Wars movie every year for as long as people will buy tickets. Let me put it another way: If everything works out for Disney, and if you are (like me) old enough to have been conscious for the first Star Wars film, you will probably not live to see the last one. It’s the forever franchise."

Considering the care and attention that has clearly gone into the promotion and build-up to Episode VII, it would be something of a surprise if Disney just hamfistedly kept cynically smashing out movies with diminishing returns in the future - but if there's money to be made, then we can't imagine the Mickey Mouse guys are going to be shy about taking it. There's that $4.05bn to make back, and plenty more profit after that, especially considering it's likely that the Star Wars audience will be pretty much the most loyal around.

After all, if you can retain your enthusiasm after those prequels, then you can sit through anything, right?